1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a new and novel method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head assembly having a thin film magnetic transducer, substrate, superstrate and connecting elements joined to conductive leads of the thin film magnetic transducer by a diffused electrical connection formed of a diffusable conductive metal layer by use of a planar conductive connecting member used as a spacer and by heating, clamping and maintaining the so clamped sub-assembly at a predetermined bonding temperature for a selected time period to enable a preformed glass layer by capillary action to encapsulate the thin film magnetic transducer, and the conductive leads and connecting elements joined together by a diffused electrical connection and bond the same into an integral thin film head assembly.
2. Disclosure of the Prior Art
It is known in the prior art to manufacture ferrite magnetic heads having at least two pole pieces formed of sintered ferromagnetic oxide material wherein the pole pieces are joined together with a short gap therebetween to from the transducing portion thereof and wherein the pole pieces are bonded together by glass. Typical of such known methods are the methods disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,577,634; 3,246,383 and 3,024,318. Magnetic heads manufactured by the above known methods are combined with housings or cermaic sliders to form magnetic head assemblies used in apparatus, systems and equipment for storing and retrieving information in a recording media.
In order to produce smaller magnetic head assemblies, reduce the size of the gap forming the transducing portion of such magnetic head assemblies and to increase the recording densities and decrease the track widths of such magnetic head assemblies, new techniques have been developed to produce thin film magnetic transducers. Such thin film magnetic transducers can be fabricated by use of known vapor deposition or sputtering techniques. Typical of such thin film magnetic transducers produced by use of the vapor deposition techniques are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,867,368 and 3,846,841. Other thin film transducers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,052,749 and 4,092,688.
With the rapid advance in techniques for manufacturing thin film magnetic transducers, the prior art includes many known techniques for fabricating the thin film magnetic head assemblies using thin film magnetic transducers. Typically, epoxy, glass bonding and other adhesives are used to form an integral bonded thin film magnetic head assembly.
One such glass bonding technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,143,458 and 4,191,983 to George W. Gibson, one of the joint inventors of the present invention, and assigned to the same assignee as in this present invention.